Combat Knives
Written by Michael Puttré
SOTECH 2010 Volume: 8 Issue: 5 (July)
“When a man has a weapon which he knows is designed for fighting alone and has been trained in its use, he immediately develops a sense of confidence in it that he will never feel toward the utility knife. His fighting knife takes on a definite personal characteristic. He carries it with him at all times, he sharpens it often, and he will regard it as a very necessary part of his personal equipment,” wrote Colonel Rex Applegate, U.S. Army, in Kill or Get Killed (1943).
There is much history and mystique in the combat knife. Yet what is the role of such an archaic-seeming implement in modern armed forces festooned with automatic weapons and with precision-guided bombs on call overhead? Peruse the various blade-related forums on the Web—and there are many—and you will find very passionate advocates for specific combat knife types and informed discussions of their features. What’s missing are actual examples of the weapons being used in combat.
Consider this representative post from militaryphotos.net: “I carried an Applegate [folding knife] on my vest. The only thing I ever used it for in combat was threatening a teenage boy [not to take] some gum that I gave to a girl away from her. I told him that when I came back she’d better have it! HA, it worked!”
The vast majority of soldiers, given a choice in the matter, are unwilling to going knife-to-knife with the enemy. There was an incident during the battle for Monte Casino in 1943 where New Zealand and German opponents, having run out of ammunition, elected to throw rocks at each other rather than engage in close combat. Nobody would describe either side as lacking in courage, but the incident illustrates a visceral aversion to close-quarters fighting.
Overcoming this aversion is one of the chief goals of the Modern Army Combatives Program (MACP) developed by Matt Lorsen, a veteran U.S. Marine and Army Ranger. Now president of Modern Combatives, Lorsen puts close-combat training in perspective: The first basic tenant of combatives is that “the winner of the hand-tohand fight in combat is the one whose buddy shows up first with a gun...With that in mind, the second tenant is that the defining characteristic of a warrior is the willingness to close with the enemy. We do not win wars because we are better at hand-to-hand combat than the enemy, we do however win wars because of the things it takes to be a good hand-to-hand fighter.”
The idea is that if a soldier is confident in his or her ability to engage in hand-to-hand combat, he or she will be a more effective all-around warrior. Moreover, rare as they may be, there are situations where close-combat is thrust upon a soldier, choice or no. In these situations, the soldier would want to have a well-designed combat knife readily at hand. For this reason, a number of combat knife designers and manufacturers remain dedicated to producing effective and useful blades.
STANDARD ISSUE
In U.S. service, standard combat knives are represented by the Army’s M9 bayonet and the Marine’s KA-BAR series of fixed-blade, general-purpose knives. Both weapons show a heritage harkening back to the Bowie knife.
The M9, developed in various incarnations by Phrobis III (Oceanside, CA.), Buck Knives (Post Falls, Idaho), Lan-Cay (Carrollton, Ky.), and Ontario Knife Co. (Franklinville, N.Y.), is a multipurpose knife that functions as a hand weapon and as a bayonet on the M16 series rifle and M4 series carbine. It also serves as a general field and utility knife and as a wire cutter. The standard sheath can function as a wire cutter. The M9 has a 7 inch stainless steel blade and an overall length of 12 inches. Over 400,000 versions of the M9 have been manufactured to date.
The Ka-Bar knife, manufactured by Ka-Bar Inc. (Olean, N.Y.), reportedly owes its name to a century-old testimonial from a fur trapper who wrote to the company about how he had used the knife to “k a bar,” interpreted as “kill a bear.” The standard Ka-Bar knife has survived in its current form essentially unchanged from WW2. The modern version features a 7 inch, 1095 chromiumvanadium steel and an overall length of 11.75 inches. There are also variants made for the Army and Navy.
While the standard-issue M9 and Ka-Bar combat knives are classic designs, they by no means represent the end of combat knife development. A number of designers and manufacturers continue to develop new blades based on lessons learned from recent conflicts.
Using the 900-odd documented cases of hand-to-hand combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, Lorsen collaborated with knife designers William Harsey Jr. and Chris Reeve to develop the LHR Combat Knife, which is now manufactured by Gerber Legendary Blades. The knife features a 6.87 inch part-serrated blade made from 420 high carbon steel with a black ceramic coating. It has an overall length of 12.25 inches and weighs 11.2 ounces. The textured “TacHide” handle is designed for a secure grip when wet or muddy. The hardmolded sheath includes several straps that allow it to be attached in a variety of carrying positions, although it can only be worn in a drop-leg rig. The knife can only be removed from its sheath by a hidden thumb release, which is intended to prevent the knife from being lifted by an enemy hand. One reviewer described the thumb release as taking some getting used to, but also that it was very secure and most importantly, didn’t rattle.
Combat knife manufacturers recognize that the trend in modern combat knives is toward smaller blades that offer a number of utility features. The number one selling model at SOG Specialty Knives & Tools (Lynnwood, Mass.) is its SEAL Pup fixed-blade knife with a blade length of 4.75 inches, derived from the SEAL Team model with a 7 inch blade. The SEAL Pup has a stainless steel blade with a coating to protect it from rust. “There’s not a lot of handto- hand combat these days,” said Chris Cashbaugh, marketing manager at SOG. “Customers want lighter knives that can do what larger knives can do.”
As an example of what his military customers want knives to do, Cashbaugh cites a letter he received from a soldier fighting in Afghanistan:
“During the recent Battle of Marjeh, my company was one of two U.S. Army Stryker infantry companies attached to the Marines operating throughout the area…In the middle of combat operations, the ground underneath one of my Stryker ICVs gave way, causing the vehicle to roll into a canal. The quick recovery of this vehicle was essential to the success of our mission and the safety of my men. Fortunately, several of my men had your knives —either Tigersharks or SEAL Pups. Your large combat blades were tough enough to cut through the dense brush and vines that blocked us from hooking our truck up to get it dragged out...Your blades helped make it happen, and because of that we continued the operation.”
FOLDING UNDER PRESSURE
What’s interesting about the variety of combat knives that appear in the hands of U.S. service personnel is that most are purchased with their own money. There are very few knives issued by the services on a standard basis, the M9 and Ka-Bar types being the prime examples. Some units will acquire and issue specific knives deemed useful for their particular mission. But by and large, the funds for purchasing combat knives come out of the troops’ own pockets.
Columbia River Knife & Tool (Tualatin, Ore.) manufactures a number of tactical fixed and folding knives for the military market at modest prices. The company’s most popular series of knives is its M16 series designed by Kit Carson. The M16 Zytel tactical folder has a 3.875-inch tanto-style blade made of AUS 4 high-carbon steel and costs about $70.
Blackhawk (Norfolk, Va.), founded by former Navy SEAL Mike Noell, also produces relatively inexpensive fixed and folding tactical knives. The company’s Crucible II folder designed by Kelly McGann features a 3.25-inch stainless steel blade with black Teflon coating. The Crucible II has a retail price of about $90.
This is not to say that all folding blade tactical knives are for the budget-conscious. Benchmade (Clackamas, Ore.) produces its top-of-the-line 9100 Auto Stryker series of combat knives that are equipped with push-button automatic opening mechanisms. The 3.7-inch blade is made of 154CM stainless steel and is available in standard and tanto configurations. The 9100SBK model has a retail price of $245, so hang onto it.
NEVER A DULL MOMENT
“The knives made for the military aren’t really for killing anymore,” said Darrel Ralph, president of Darrel Ralph Designs. “That’s just a practical fact. But the knives still have to function that way. You can’t discount that, ever.”
This observation gets to the heart of the tactical knife market. The knives have to retain their potential as killing weapons while performing more utilitarian tasks on a day-to-day basis. In order to achieve this balance, Ralph draws on his background as a mechanical engineer to use computer-sided design and modeling techniques to make tactical knives lighter, not necessarily smaller. He also uses titanium and aircraft aluminum in pursuit of the same goal.
As one of the oldest items in the soldiers’ kit, the tactical knife would seem to still have a long life ahead of it. While the days of the long-bladed sheath knife are probably numbered, if not over, there will always be a requirement for tough, durable blades that can help cut through problems. And if it’s wicked deadly to boot, so much the better. ♦